


Haunted Europe

by DashFlintceschi



Series: Haunted World [2]
Category: All Time Low (Band), As It Is (Band), One Direction (Band), You Me At Six
Genre: Alex and Chris as cameramen, Ali and Matt as sound guys, Alternate Universe, Josh and Louis as presenters, M/M, Max and Ronnie as researchers, Patty and Dan as genuinely psychic mediums, TV Show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:40:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24284512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DashFlintceschi/pseuds/DashFlintceschi
Summary: After the incredible success of their first four seasons, the crew of Haunted Britain invite you to join them on a whole new adventure. With new crewmates, new locations, and new surprises, we welcome you to Haunted Europe.
Relationships: Alistair Testo/Ronnie Ish, Dan Flint/Louis Tomlinson, Eventual Alex Gaskarth/Patty Walters, Josh Franceschi/Max Helyer, Matt Barnes/Chris Miller
Series: Haunted World [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672342
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. France & Germany

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to change tack with this one, instead of 2 chapters with 5 locations each, as I was originally planning, it'll be 5 chapters with 2 locations each. Doing 5 locations per chapter last time felt like a mammoth task, and I think it's why I always struggled to get the chapters out in a decent amount of time, so hopefully doing it this way will make writing them quicker and easier.

**Paris, France**

The crew come together in Paris three days before they’re supposed to. It’s been much longer since they were all together for filming than they’re used to; just over seven months; and a lot has changed. The first change that needs to be addressed is the changes to the crew itself. At the end of the final season of Haunted Britain; Niall, Liam, and Harry had all quit. They all understood, of course, they were happy the three of them had been offered new jobs that were better for their health and well-being, but that doesn’t lessen the hurt, or how much they miss them.

They have new recruits to welcome and get to know now, though. It turns out, after Josh and Dan’s talk in Dublin, Josh had passed on how overworked Dan was feeling to their producers, who had immediately started looking for a second medium to lighten Dan’s load. They recently found the answer to the problem in Brighton. His name is Patty Walters, an immigrant from America who still sounds firmly Minnesotan, despite living in England for the past twenty years, has a soft voice and a loud laugh, and speaks to spirits with a gentleness Dan very much envies. 

Patty’s opposite comes in the form of their new cameraman. Alex Gaskarth was born in Essex, emigrated to the states at the same age Patty had left, and has long sounded very much American. He has a loud voice and a louder laugh, and claims there’s nothing soft about him several times during the few phone calls they’d all managed after he was hired, but they all see his softness in the slightly nervous grin and strong welcoming hugs he greets them with.

Their new sound guy and researcher come as a pair. Recommended by Patty, Ali Testo and Ronnie Ish are one of those ‘opposites attract’ couples. Ali is quiet and soft spoken, and can easily slip away into the background of any conversation without anyone noticing, and within an hour of meeting him, the rest of the crew resolve to always notice. Ronnie, on the other hand, has quick wit and a quicker smile, and immediately becomes best friends with everyone he meets. 

He’s usually the one who drags people’s attention back to Ali, and when he notices Dan doing it when they all meet in the hotel restaurant, he grins happily, firing off a teasing comment about Dan stealing his job and pulling him into an easy hug. Dan hesitates for a moment as he’s fiercely reminded of Harry, but easily relaxes into it and returns it at the other’s bright laugh at something over his shoulder.

Once they’re settled and order drinks, the second change is addressed when an oblivious Max asks Louis how Niall is doing, biting his lip and apologising when Louis gives him a sad smile and tells them all that Niall broke up with them three months ago. They both wave off his apology as Dan takes Louis’ hand and gives it a gentle squeeze.

“It’s alright, you didn’t know, and it wasn’t so bad, really, it ended well enough. Just...the long break and his new job, made it pretty obvious to all of us that we weren’t really meant for each other, just felt like it when we spent all day every day on top of each other for weeks at a time. Ended up he was the only one brave enough to admit it and do something about it,” Dan explains with a shrug of one shoulder, the sadness leaving his eyes as he looks between Max and Josh with a grin. “But I think we’d all much rather hear about _those_ ,” he adds, his free hand pointing out the very pretty engagement rings sparkling on their fingers.

Josh flushes happily as he tells the story, the tale of the wild scavenger hunt; which Max had convinced him the rest of the crew had set up as an early birthday present for Josh; that led to the spot they’d first met and ended with Max on one knee taking them through the first course and part way into the second. They both blush when the rest of the crew toast their engagement, a little louder than any of them mean to, and get a small smattering of applause from a few English speakers at nearby tables. 

There’s a moment of confusion when Patty asks to take a closer look at their rings and Josh holds out his hand, which Patty gently grips to steady it as he looks. The confusion comes when he’s looked his fill and given them both a very sincere compliment on their rings, then as he and Josh are both settling back into their chairs, he makes a comment on a rosebush that had been nearby during the proposal, which neither of them had mentioned at all. He blinks at them for a moment when they ask him how he knew that, before his shoulders pull up in discomfort as he explains psychometry, the ability to feel and interpret energy in objects he touches. They can all tell he’s uncomfortable, it would be obvious even if most of them hadn’t seen it from Dan often in the first few weeks they had worked with him. Josh decides the best way to ease Patty’s discomfort is to let out his own curiosity and he turns to Dan.

“You can’t do that, can you?” He asks, face scrunching slightly as he tries to remember, and Dan laughs softly as he shrugs.

“I mean, not with living people,” he grins, and Alex laughs loudly.

“That sounds so fucking ominous,” he snorts, making Louis grin.

“Everything this weirdo says sounds vaguely ominous, you get used to it,” he jokes, and Dan’s grin widens, knowing that from Louis, that’s a pretty high compliment, one he saves especially for Dan. He notices Josh still looking confused, and shrugs again.

“I mean, we were never going to be able to do the same things, being spooky isn’t a one size fits all deal. You’ve seen me do it a few times though, I think, I’d touch a wall or something and know stuff about someone who died three hundred years ago. I figure it’s the same thing, but Patty’s is stronger, I guess? I think the energy left behind by the dead is stronger, cause the living are, y’know, still using their energy, so they don’t leave as much of it behind on objects. So my ability in this sense is weaker, cause I can only pick up the stronger energy left by the dead, but I have no sense for the smaller traces left behind by the living like Patty does, make sense?” He explains, and they all nod, Josh especially looking much less confused now, but much more importantly, Patty looks more at ease now that he’s seen how casually they talk about his and Dan’s abilities.

They spend the next three days getting to know their new additions better, and taking the rare opportunity to be tourists for once, relying on Josh’s French a lot less than they’d expected to. When the time finally comes to start filming, they head down into the catacombs, Dan pausing at one point to reach up towards an inscription above the door. _Arrête! C'est ici l'empire de la Mort_. 

“Stop, this is the Empire of the Dead,” he murmurs, reading aloud to translate the only French he knows, both for the others and for the cameras, before turning to Patty with a grin. “Hey look, we finally found our people,” he laughs, grinning wider as Patty snorts and lightly shoves him, he can tell he’s achieved what he’d wanted, easing at least a little of Patty’s nerves about his first episode with them.

They go a little further in before stopping again. This is where their guide leaves them for the night, but not before giving them a very stern warning to be careful, and always stick to the maps they’ve been given. They’re all wearing trackers as a precaution, but none of them let that make them relax, none of them want to be lost down here, praying the trackers lead a search party to them before their torches die. So they all nod in agreement with her warning, giving her more promises that they’ll be careful, each one just as sincere as the first promises they’d given her up on the street.

Once they’re alone, Josh turns to the cameras.

“Normally, this is where we’d split up to cover more ground, but we’re not fucking stupid, so we’re not doing that,” he announces nonchalantly, making the rest of them snort before he turns and starts leading the way deeper into the tunnels. They walk for a while, Josh and Louis talking about the history of the catacombs, occasionally stopping so Josh can translate the engravings they pass, until Patty reaches out and grabs Dan’s arm.

“Do you hear that?” He asks quietly, and they all go still and silent as he listens for a moment before nodding.

“Yeah. Someone give me a voice recorder, we’ll see if we can find the voice, or at least get closer, Josh can translate it later,” he says as he reaches out, feeling one of them slip the small device into his hand. It’s still faint, but he can tell it’s French, but they’ve already planned for this, and for the other countries they’ll be visiting where they don’t have a conveniently fluent crew member.

They shift around so Dan and Patty can slip to the front of the pack, staying quiet as they slowly move along the tunnel, pausing every few feet so they can listen. Eventually they follow it to a rusted gate, and Dan leans against it with a sigh.

“It’s down that way somewhere, which means we can’t follow it any further, those sections of the tunnels are blocked off cause they aren’t safe,” he explains for the cameras, as Patty takes the recorder from him and stretches his arm through the bars, hoping to at least make whatever it picks up a little clearer. After a few moments, he makes a soft surprised sound and draws back, looking at Dan with wide eyes as he hands the recorder back.

“One of them grabbed my arm, I’m not used to them grabbing me,” he tells him softly, and Dan pulls him into a hug, rubbing his back comfortingly. He still remembers what it’s like to get used to this job, at least Patty doesn’t have to go through it alone like he had.

They double back to the last turn and head in a different direction, moving deeper still into the tunnels. After what feels like hours, they both stop as their lights land on a woman in a long dress.

“Hello, do you speak English?” Dan calls out, trying to sound as friendly as possible. She shakes her head and replies in French, and he sighs, before tilting his head as he has an idea and turns to Josh. “Trust me?”

“Always,” Josh replies instantly, and Dan grins, moving around behind him and gently placing his hands on either side of Josh’s head.

“If this works, it might feel weird, tell me immediately if it hurts,” he tells him, and Josh nods a little. Dan closes his eyes and focuses for a few minutes. “Anything?” He asks eventually, and Josh hums thoughtfully.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but I don’t feel different and nothing’s changed, so I’m gonna say no,” he replies, and Dan sighs, letting his hands drop.

“I was hoping I could like...share my ability a little for a minute, so you could talk to her instead, but I guess it doesn’t work like that,” he explains with a huffed laugh, moving back beside Patty as they all snort at his idea. Patty’s grinning though, and holds out his hand to Dan.

“I think I have another idea though, gimme the recorder,” he tells him, and Dan hands it over easily. “Josh, say something to her, just like ‘hello’ or some shit,” he instructs, and Josh nods, moving forward to lean between them.

“Bonsoir! Comment vas-tu?” He calls out, and Patty starts the recorder. After she replies, he stops it and rewinds the tape and hits play, and her voice rings out clearly. _‘Oh, tu es toujours là?’_ Josh snorts a laugh and looks up.

“She said ‘oh, are you still here?’” He translates, turning to where he thinks she is to reply while the others laugh.

They get a few minutes of conversation from her before she leaves, and they manage to get the same result with two more spirits before it’s time to head back up to the street just before sunrise. Their guide meets them and makes them stand still so she can do a head count and check them over, eventually nodding once she’s happy they all made it out in one piece. Once she lets them move again, Dan throws his arm around Patty’s shoulders as they start walking back to the hotel.

“So, what d’you think? Not such a bad job after all?” He asks, only slightly teasing, Patty seemed to take most of the night in his stride, but Dan wants to be sure.

“Yeah, I think I can dig it,” Patty nods with a grin, and Dan laughs softly, ruffling Patty’s hair as he sighs in relief, now that he knows what it’s like to do the job as a pair, he doesn’t think he could’ve gone back to doing it alone.

**Darmstadt, Germany**

None of them are happy that they’re still driving between locations that are now much further apart than they’re used to, but a call to their producers has several voices throwing ridiculous numbers at them that turn out to be the financial estimates for flying the crew and their equipment to each location, along with renting a new van every time. They’re still not happy about it, but they understand the reason a lot better now.

It’s a 347 mile drive from Paris to Darmstadt, their longest yet, and on much less familiar roads, so they take it easy, each taking shifts that they frequently change, driving slower than they normally would; but still only slightly under the speed limit, they don’t want to be _those_ tourists; and making sure they keep the radio down low and try not to talk to whoever’s driving too much. It’s still a difficult journey, even when they’re not the one driving. The van is almost identical to the ones they’d used for previous seasons, so they’re used to how little room they have, but they have an extra person now, and Alex is just as lanky as Harry had been, which doesn’t exactly help.

Dan is driving when he decides enough is enough. He’s just crossed the border into Germany, it’s late, he’s so nervous driving these roads at night, and all he can focus on is the squirming and murmurs of discomfort from the rows of seats behind him. He huffs a sigh as he spots a sign for a service station and changes lanes to get onto the slip road. The rest of the crew quickly notice as they start to slow down, Ronnie sitting up enough to pop his head over the back of the seat.

“Need one of us to take over, bud?” He asks softly, nodding a little and staying quiet when Dan makes a soft noise that makes it clear he’s still concentrating too hard to answer properly.

Once he’s parked, some of the tension finally leaves his shoulders as he turns to look back at them all.

“I’m still good to drive, but we _need_ to stop and figure out a better sleeping arrangement. None of us can handle this much longer,” he insists, and they all quickly nod in agreement, a few of them sighing in relief at the thought of being able to stretch out for a minute. They all climb out, stretching happily as Dan moves to the side door, looking over the back seats as he thinks.

Finally, just as they’re starting to get cold, he turns to them, sizing them all up for a second before nodding.

“Okay, I think I’ve got it. It’s not perfect, but it’ll be a lot better, I think. Firstly, while I’m driving, Lou, I want you in the front seat with me, there’s more than enough room for you to stretch out, and my leg will make a decent pillow. Once we switch, it’s comfortable enough for both of us if you sleep on top of me. Which brings me to my next point. We’ve got four couples here, if you lot are able to do the same, if one of you can take the other’s weight easily enough to sleep, we can half the space we’re taking up,” he pauses and glances around, Josh and Matt immediately raise their hands a little, they already know they can sleep with Max and Chris’ weight on them, and after a short whispered argument, Ali huffs as Ronnie lifts his hand too. “Okay, perfect, that not only gives Alex some more much-needed leg room, but it gives all of us more room to breathe too.” 

He pauses again as he has to think things out some more. He already has most of it worked out, they can do what he’s planning with Louis, when one half of each of the couples is driving, the other gets the rest of the front seat. It’ll be a little difficult when Max is driving, Josh won’t be able to stretch his legs out all the way, but it shouldn’t be too bad. But that still leaves Alex and Patty. The two of them seem to be on his wavelength though, as Alex waves his hand a little to catch Dan’s attention.

“I don’t mind driving with a lap friend too, for the record,” he tells them, and Patty nods in agreement.

“I’m down with being laid on, too,” he pauses and grins as they all look him up and down and laugh a little. “Okay, or with laying on someone who also doesn’t mind, then.” He amends as he laughs with them, and Alex makes a soft noise of agreement.

Dan takes another moment to think, they have four rows of seats, and five pairs, he looks them all over again, then slowly nods.

“Okay, so the main thing is, Josh and Alex each need a row to themselves, they need the leg room way too much to top and tail with any of us. But I think we can make that work. I’m the tallest of the rest of us, and I’ve been doubling up easy enough this whole time, so they get a row each with Patty and Max, four of us double up on the other row, then the front row for whoever’s driving, sound good?” He finally finishes, and he knows it’s so far from perfect, yeah he can double up on a row with someone, but it’s not entirely comfortable for either of them, and half of them will likely end up with a twinge in their backs from having someone sleep on top of them all the time. But it’s better than the twisted, cramped, shove your body where it’ll fit that they’ve been doing since they left Paris.

Once they’ve all agreed, they climb back into the van, and though there’s initially a few grunts and muttering as Matt and Ronnie figure out how to get their legs comfortable without taking away room from the other, they finally all settle after a minute or two. The van is blissfully silent now that they’re all more comfortable, and Dan smiles to himself and takes a moment to run his fingers through Louis’ hair a few times before pulling out of the carpark and heading back onto the motorway. They have a little difficulty an hour later, when it’s time for Matt to take over driving. They realise they didn’t take into account that they’d have to wake Louis and Chris, or how difficult it would be to swap places without waking Ali and Ronnie, but Chris has always been surprisingly okay with being woken up, and Louis climbs over the seat without even opening his eyes, and they manage to get settled in their new positions with only a soft mumble from Ali that doesn’t fully wake him up.

The rest of the drive is much easier, and they’re all finally sleeping deeply and comfortably enough that they don’t even stir when Alex stops in a carpark near the castle, and he and Patty get comfortable in the front seat to get some decent sleep of their own. They’re woken just as the sun is setting, by a polite knock on the driver’s side window. Alex sits up with a soft confused noise, barely awake but still aware enough to keep one arm tight around Patty, who’s only woken by the movement. There’s a woman standing outside the van, and the uniform from the castle restaurant makes it obvious why she’s there.

Alex gently moves Patty onto the seat and slides over to roll the window down, blinking owlishly as she greets him in German.

“Sorry, I don’t…” Is all he has to mumble before she laughs and switches to English.

“You are the ghost hunters, right?” She asks cheerily, and he nods, still struggling to wake up, but fairly sure that sounds right. “Would you be able to come up to the castle soon? We can’t close until you do,” she tells him apologetically, and he nods again, turning to start waking the others, but they’re all already in the process of disentangling themselves.

Most of Frankenstein Castle is ruins now, but the majority of it is safe for them to investigate, and the staff have been kind enough to mark out the parts that aren’t. The restaurant staff are happy to see them, setting out the food they’d made for them without being asked, waving off their surprised, stammered thanks and chatting happily as they close up around them. Once they’re done eating and the staff are gone for the night, they take some more time to wake up properly and set up their gear.

They’re glad for the new crew dynamic after they do a quick walkthrough. The castle isn’t massive, but it’s big enough to warrant splitting up, and for once they can do it properly, no-one has to wait for Dan, and he doesn’t have to stress himself out about how much he has to do. Once they’re ready, they head in opposite directions; Dan, Josh, Ali, Chris, and Ronnie starting on the west side of the building; and Patty leading Louis, Matt, Alex, and Max to the east side. They’ll work their way through the castle, and eventually meet in the middle. Dan’s a little worried about leaving Patty to fend for himself so soon, but they have radios and he’s mostly confident he can sprint from one side of the castle to the other with little difficulty if Patty needs him.

The west side is uneventful enough to be boring, and Dan’s glad when they take a break once they meet in the middle, happy to sit and listen to Patty gushing about the two spirits he got to talk to, his excitement infections as Dan can’t help grinning along with him. They’d used a translation app on Max’s tablet to talk to the spirits, and it seems to have worked perfectly, Patty was able to have fairly long conversations with both of them, and Matt and Alex quietly mention that they got some amazing footage of both.

Once they’re ready to go again, they whine and complain their way up a seemingly never-ending staircase until they reach the top of the tower. None of them have covered it yet, and Max and Ronnie get to shine, taking turns going on long rambling stories of the castle’s history while Patty and Dan get a feel for the place. Ronnie’s in the middle of talking about how the castle began falling into disrepair when he’s interrupted by Dan crying out in fear and quickly backing away from a window.

The rest of the crew move to check on him, while Patty starts towards the window.

“Don’t. Don’t touch it, just… Stay away from it.” Dan stammers out, and Patty nods, changing course and joining the rest of them instead. After a few minutes of forcing deep breaths and a few gulps of water, Dan feels steadier. “It was that thing we were talking about, that first night, the psychometry. Put my hand on the window ledge and picked up the energy of someone who jumped from up here. The urge to just lean forward and let myself fall was…” He trails off with a shudder, and none of them have to ask. The call of the void is uncomfortable enough, being filled with someone else’s suicidal thoughts on top of it sounds even more awful.

They don’t stay in the tower much longer, neither of them can sense any spirits here, and they’re all nervous now. It’s a relief to get back down to the ground floor, and they happily focus on filming the intro and outro, and a few little extra pieces just in case, until the first hints of sunrise. They realise as they’re walking back down to the van that they’d all still been carrying some tension from the tower, but the further they move away from the castle, the more tension falls away, until they’re totally relaxed, talking and laughing with each other as they get to the carpark and start loading the gear into the van. 

They have another long drive to start when they wake up later, the journey to the Czech Republic is almost as long as the last one, but it feels like it’ll be easier this time. They know what to expect now, and they’ve worked out some of the kinks, they’ve got this.


	2. Czech Republic & Romania

**Zvíkovské Podhradí, Czech Republic**

They don’t have this.

They’re only 70 miles into the 335 they have to cover, and they’re stopped on the side of the road, giving each other nervous looks as Max and Dan scream at each other beside the van. It hadn’t seemed like much at first, they’d all been more or less dozing, and Max had taken off his hoodie and tossed it carelessly out of his way. But it had sailed over the back of the seat in front, smacking Dan in the face as the zipper cut his lip. Max’s half-assed apology had led to some sniping back and forth, until Dan’s temper had been set off for the first time in a long time, and he’d had to control his voice as best he could as he barked at Ronnie to pull over.

He’d stormed out of the van as soon as they stopped, intending to just stretch his legs and cool off a bit and hopefully that would be the end of it. But it seemed they were all more stressed than they’d realised, and Max just couldn’t let it go, scrambling out after him to continually snipe and bait him until Dan finally blew up. It’s been around twenty minutes since then, and neither of them is showing any sign of stopping. They’ve long since moved on from the original issue, turning silly little things that barely irk them into something huge to throw at the other. Max has just finished a five minute rant on Dan’s snoring, and Dan’s ignored most of it, launching into a tirade on how Max never turns the brightness down on his tablet when the rest of them are sleeping.

He doesn’t get far before Louis decides he’s had enough, leaning out of the side door and interrupting.

“Oi! We’re all freezing, and you’re fucking scaring me. Shut the fuck up and get back in the van.” He shouts, and they both freeze, staring at him for a few tense seconds before Dan turns to Max and holds out his hand.

“You’re a dickhead, I’m a dickhead, how about we leave it at that?” He asks, forcing his voice to stay calm and steady as he pushes down what’s left of his anger. Max barely has to consider it before he nods and shakes his hand.

“We’re both fucking dickheads, and I’m sorry I hurt you,” he agrees, smiling sheepishly as he apologises. Dan nods and takes it as graciously as he can, motioning for Max to climb back into the van first before following him.

The rest of the crew aren’t exactly happy with them, they’ve wasted time they didn’t really have in the first place. But the last thing they need is any of them saying something and starting another fight, and to be honest, they get it. As much as they love this job, it’s fucking miserable at times, and the stress and discomfort make it easy for tempers to fray. Especially right now, with everything being bigger and less familiar, and the feeling that their producers are expecting even more from them than before looming over them. Really, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened, and at least now they’ve both let off some steam. There’s still some anger and frustration simmering under the surface, but being separated by the back of the seat, and Josh and Louis convincing them both to sleep helps, and things are quiet and calm again for the rest of the journey.

They’re all careful to keep themselves between Max and Dan when they climb out of the van in the village near the castle. They both seem calmer now, but none of them are taking any chances just yet. They find a quiet restaurant and though there’s a slight tension running through them all, they manage to keep things relatively relaxed. Finally, halfway through the meal, Dan catches a dumb joke Max makes to Ali and laughs loudly. They grin at each other for a moment, and suddenly it’s like nothing even happened, the tension is gone, the rest of the crew are finally convinced they won’t start fighting again, and they’re best friends again, just like that. They’d all known it was really just stress that had brought the whole thing on, but knowing for sure that some half decent sleep and some good food was all either of them had needed is a huge relief.

They head up to the castle once they’re done eating. They still have an hour or so before sunset, but they’re at a loose end and figure they may as well get set up now and use as much of the night as they can. While they’re unloading the van, Ronnie starts telling them some of the stories he’s found in his research, which Dan does his best to block out. He likes to go in blind when he can. There’s one phrase that catches his attention though, making him pause and look at Ronnie with big eyes.

“Fire hounds? Did you just say fire hounds? As in spooky puppies?” He asks, his excitement already clear enough to make the others laugh softly.

“I mean, I wouldn’t say puppies, I think they’re pretty similar to hellhounds,” Ronnie corrects him, slightly apologetic, but it doesn’t faze Dan, and he’s still wiggling in excitement as he picks up the next case and starts taking it inside as he hums what sounds like ‘spooky puppies, yes, yes, lots of spooky puppies’ to himself.

They think they’re well past their bad start to the day, but the castle has other ideas. Everything goes well for the first few hours, they get the intro done in one take, and both Patty and Dan are sensing plenty of spirits from the second they walk in. Though they do worry the rest of the crew when they freeze and shudder in almost perfect unison, Dan pointing out a door as Patty curls in on himself, both insisting that none of them go in there, or even anywhere near the door because it ‘feels like death’. None of them consider arguing, they’re far too creeped out for that, and the closest any of them get to it is when Alex moves one of their cases a few feet in front of the door, so there’s no risk of any of them getting confused in the dark and wandering inside.

They end up splitting up for a while, partly because of how big the castle is, but mostly because Dan’s mind is still stuck on the fire hounds, especially when Max mentions that they’re supposedly here to guard a secret tunnel under the castle. Dan could probably resist the urge to go looking for animal spirits and secret passageways when it was just one of them, but the temptation of both isn’t something he can turn away from. He takes Louis, Max, Ali, and Alex down to the underground levels, which he keeps gleefully referring to as dungeons, while the rest of the crew work their way upwards.

It’s at this point that things start going wrong for them. After wandering the ground floor for a while and consulting the maps of the castle they’d been given, Patty decides he wants to start in the ancient tower. They make their way to the top, and spend a while exploring while Patty tries to pin down the feeling of some kind of spirit that seems to permeate the whole room. Josh stops paying attention to most of what’s going on around him as he finds some odd symbols carved into the stone walls, taking photos and rubbings of them as he follows them around the room.

He’s just finished inspecting the last one near the top of the stairs, when he feels hands press against his side and push him hard, making him stumble sideways for a moment until his foot slips off the top step and he goes crashing down the stairs. Thankfully, it’s a relatively short flight of stairs, but the four of them rush down to where he’s crumpled on the landing. Patty reaches him first, gently touching Josh’s shoulder and is immediately flooded with a strong sense of what just happened.

“That’s why the little fucker was hiding from me.” He murmurs, pushing it to the back of his mind so he can focus on doing a quick check of Josh’s neck and spine before helping him slowly sit up. By some miracle, he’s mostly fine, he can feel some nasty bruises forming already, and his left wrist is almost definitely broken, but that seems to be the worst of it. 

They leave Josh and Ronnie on the landing while the three of them go back up to grab the gear they’d left upstairs. It’s a quick job and should be easy, but as Patty grabs the voice recorder he’d dropped on a table, it sends a shock through his hand that makes him cry out and drop it again. Matt and Chris rush to his side, Chris holding his torch as close to Patty’s hand as he dares so they can get a good look. The skin on his palm is already starting to blister, and Matt hisses softly.

“Alright, clearly something doesn’t want us up here, so let’s take the hint and get to fuck,” he sighs, managing a tiny, tight smile when he gets a watery giggle from Patty.

They cautiously gather everything up and don’t waste time getting back down to Josh and Ronnie. They fill them in as Josh wraps his uninjured arm around Patty, comforting both of them at once as they each cradle a hand to their chests and focus harder than they normally would on making it down to the ground floor without any further incidents.

They make it down there without any problems, except for the fact that they can’t get the other half of the crew on the radio. They’ve tried everything by the time they get there, and Ronnie has just volunteered to go down after them when they hear a commotion. There’s a mess of rushed, echoing footsteps and loud voices coming from the hallway they’d taken down to the lower levels, and Josh has just enough time to feel a flare of panic at what he thinks is the sound of sobs before the five of them come crashing out into the entrance hall. 

Louis and Alex are half carrying, half dragging Dan, and even in the dim light, they can see the sickly grey tinge to his skin. The thing that worries them most, though, is that all five of them are covered in blood.

“Fire hounds are _not_ spooky puppies,” Louis gasps out as he and Alex immediately turn towards the front door and head straight for the van, while the rest of them hastily shove all of their gear into the cases as best they can and drag everything out. They’d rather not waste the time, but the thought of coming back here, even during the day, isn’t something they’re willing to even consider.

By the time they’re all in the van, Louis and Alex have managed to find the first aid kit, and secured a tourniquet around Dan’s leg. His shredded, blood-soaked jeans are on the floor at Louis’ feet, but he doesn’t seem to notice the overwhelming smell of copper as he looks down at Dan where his head is settled in Louis’ lap, stroking his hair and talking to him softly, obviously trying to keep him awake. Alex turns the van onto the driveway as soon as the side door is closed, doing his best to avoid jostling their injured crewmates too much as he follows Ali’s quiet directions to the nearest hospital.

Now that the adrenaline is starting to wear off, those of them that hadn’t been in the lower levels start fussing over them all, making sure no-one else is hurt and trying to figure out how to gently coax an explanation from them. Surprisingly, it’s Louis who answers them, still focused on Dan and using the gentle, soothing tone he’s been speaking to him with the whole time.

“They tricked him. He was so excited about ghost dogs, but he knew better than to just rush up to them. He was careful and took his time and they tricked us all into thinking they were friendly, until he got close enough. Then they just kind of… lunged.” His voice is mostly hollow at the end, and Josh makes a soft noise, reaching over the seat with his uninjured right arm and wrapping it around him as he presses his face into Louis’ hair for a second.

“He’ll be alright, love, he’s the strongest person any of us have ever met, he’ll get through this no bother,” he tells him softly, and Louis forces himself to take a deep breath as he nods slightly, the reassurance was exactly what he needed.

Half of them freeze in surprised concern when they go over a bump and Josh swears loudly as Patty whimpers. The rest of the drive to the hospital is taken up by them explaining their own eventful night, Josh finishing the story just as they pull up outside the hospital doors. Ronnie is the one to help Louis carry Dan inside this time, Josh, Patty, and Max right behind them while the rest of the crew stay in the van with Alex until he finds somewhere to park. Dan is immediately whisked away, and Max has to use their translation app as quickly as he can to explain what happened to Dan, before taking his time a little more to get Josh and Patty signed in. The others join them just as they find seats in the waiting room, and the two of them are called back for treatment soon after.

The rest of the night is a long, anxious one. Patty returns to them in the waiting room within fifteen minutes, right hand heavily bandaged and face not as pinched with pain. Josh takes a little longer, almost an hour before he comes back with his arm in a cast and eyes slightly glassy from the painkillers. It’s midmorning before they get any news on Dan, an exhausted looking nurse coming to let them know that he’s doing well, his leg is stitched up and his body is accepting the blood transfusion well, and they should only have to keep him for a day or so before they’re comfortable with him recovering at home. 

None of them feel the need to tell him that his patient will be convalescing in a van, and once he’s done updating them, he allows Louis to see Dan for a few minutes before they’re ushered out of the hospital. It’s hard for any of them to focus between exhaustion and worry as they get back into the van and start looking for a hotel, but the thought of a shower and a real bed helps, and they know they’ll be much more useful to Dan once they’ve had both.

**Bucharest, Romania**

Louis gets a call just before noon the next day, letting him know Dan’s ready to leave the hospital. He, Ronnie, and Max pick him up, all of their hearts breaking just a little at the way Dan hobbles out to meet them, slow and unsteady on crutches and seeming smaller, somehow. They get him back to the hotel, and after a quick call to their producers, they’re officially settled in for the next 3 days at the absolute minimum. Dan’s stubborn, but they’re determined to win this time, he needs rest, and they know it won’t be long before he insists he’s fine and ready to go, but they’re going to put that off for as long as they can. It’s more than 800 miles to their next location, the farther back they can push that journey, the happier they’ll all be.

They spend the next three days filming in Louis and Dan’s room. They only managed a little over 3 hours in the castle, most of which was setting up, so they have barely any footage, and a decent chunk of what they do have, none of them are comfortable using. Basically everything from the moment the five of them started making their way along the hallway that led to the lower levels makes the entire crew deeply uncomfortable. 

They end up being able to make up the footage easily enough, Dan and Louis tell their perspectives of what happened down there, with regular inputs from Max, Ali, and Alex; Josh shows them all the small, hand-shaped bruises that have appeared on his side, and ends up explaining it for the cameras when Chris checks and realises his camera had only caught a quick flash of Josh’s fall; Patty gives them a better explanation of the strange everywhere-and-nowhere feeling the spirit had had in that room than the barely audible rambling they’d gotten at the time; and Max and Ronnie somehow manage to fill three and a half hours worth of tape on the history and legends on the castle, which is when they all finally relax a little. If they can’t get an hour long episode from that, then there was never any hope.

In the end, it takes 7 days for Dan to convince them he’s good to go. He’s patiently let them fuss over him the whole time, and now he’s down to one crutch, moving easier and more steadily and managing to put a little weight on his left leg every now and again. The drive is grueling, it was always going to be, it’s the longest any of them have ever done, but now they’re down to seven drivers, and they have to stop frequently so Dan can stretch his legs or because Josh’s painkillers are giving him bouts of motion sickness where he’s never had it before. 

What should have been a fifteen hour journey takes two days, when Dan announces late on the first night that he needs to lie down on something that isn’t moving or he’ll vomit, and Josh vehemently agrees. The two of them just about make it until Matt finds somewhere to park, finding a bench nearby to collapse onto and take deep gulps of cold air while the rest of the crew try to find somewhere to stay for the night. They’re in a small village somewhere in Hungary, so it isn’t easy, but they manage it, and by the time they do, Josh and Dan are feeling better enough to walk there without help, and even eat a little before they go up to their rooms.

They both feel much better the next morning, and they’re able to leave Csengele just after sunrise. The last 8 hours of the journey are thankfully quiet and peaceful and they make it to Bucharest with minimal stops. They hesitate and fuss as they’re getting ready to head to the monastery that night, when they notice how badly Dan’s limping. They waver when he insists he’s fine, it’s just a little stiff when he first wakes up, and finally cave when they keep watching him and it does seem to ease off the longer he’s up and moving.

Dan pauses as they walk up the path to the monastery doors, and Alex stops behind him, shifting his camera in his grip so he can reach out and gently touch Dan’s shoulder.

“I’m alright, just… Does anyone hear bells?” He asks softly, and they all stop to listen. Patty immediately nods, which doesn’t surprise anyone, but then Ali’s nodding, frowning as he takes his headphones off to listen without his boom. He nods again after a moment, just as Josh makes a soft noise.

“D’you mean like church bells? Cause I think I hear it,” he mumbles, and Louis and Ronnie quietly agree.

“Huh, thought it was ghost bells, but I guess not.”

“Bit late for any of the churches.” Dan and Max comment at the same time, staring at each other for a moment before Dan huffs a laugh.

“Maybe it is ghost bells, then,” he amends, and a few of them nod.

“Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard something you didn’t expect us to,” Josh points out, most of them murmuring in agreement as they start moving again.

Dan takes a moment as they’re setting up to film the intro, to check in with Alex, Ali, and Ronnie, since it _is_ their first time hearing ghost noises, and he wants to check that they’re not too spooked. Thankfully they aren’t, it’s distant enough and a normal enough sound that none of them are bothered by it, though they’re all grateful he thought to check. They get the intro done quickly, and as soon as they’re done with it, they’re chasing Patty as he darts off down a long hallway.

“I hear crying, come on!” He calls over his shoulder, and Dan immediately jogs to catch up. He wonders how the hell Patty even heard it, they’re halfway along the hall before Dan’s able to hear it too.

They follow it for a while, but the crying spirit seems to be avoiding them and eventually they have to give up. Patty seems a little dejected about this, and Dan throws an arm around his shoulders as they make their way back to the entrance hall to head upstairs.

“Don’t worry about it too much, it happens, you learn to roll with it,” he soothes, telling Patty about how stressed he used to get over it and how he learned to deal with it as they climb the stairs. He doesn’t mention Niall at all, but he can’t help thinking about him anyway, and Patty gets flashes of the memories from where Dan’s watch brushes his arm. He tactfully doesn’t mention him either though, so Dan’s none the wiser as they get to the upper level and decide to split up. It’s mostly just one hallway, but it’s long, and it’ll be easier if they start at either end and meet in the middle.

Things are fine for a few hours, both groups manage to speak to a few spirits that the cameras and voice recorders are able to pick up, and everyone’s happy. But as they’re almost done with their half of the hallway, Dan walks out of a room and comes face to face with the weeping spirit they’d heard earlier. He’s about to call out to Patty, knowing he’ll feel better about that once he knows she’s been spotted, when she screeches and flies through him. 

He gasps at the unbearable cold that rocks through him, and then he has no idea where he is. It’s dark, really dark, he should be in bed, why isn’t he? He jumps a little when a man with a strange device on his shoulder appears beside him.

“Dan?” The man asks, and he does his best to smile politely.

“Sorry, who?” He responds, and the man frowns.

“You good, bud?” The man checks, and his manners kick in.

“Of course, I’m fine, thank you.” This seems to worry the man more, though, and he looks over his shoulder to call out.

“Lou?” That’s a bathroom, isn’t it? A loo? But the man sounds like he’s from… that other place, where they don’t say it that way. Another man; smaller and pretty enough to make him blush; comes out of a room and there’s some quick muttering between the two of them, before the new man comes closer to him.

“You alright, love?” The small man asks, and he nods and gives the same polite response again. As before, it’s met with a worried frown, but this time the man grips his jaw and turns his head from side to side as he looks him over, before meeting his eyes again, and there’s fear there. “Do you know who I am?” The man’s voice is small and scared and he feels bad that he can’t say yes.

“No, sorry, should I?” He checks, and the taller man curses and lifts a small crackling device to his mouth.

“Patty, get along this side now, something’s fucking with Dan’s head,” The tall man says into it, and he cocks his head to the side.

“Is that why you were looking for Dan? Is he alright?” He asks curiously, and both men curse, the smaller gripping his elbow and looking up into his eyes.

“I know this is all weird and confusing right now, but I need you to trust me, just for a minute, okay?” He nods easily at the question, this pretty stranger feels soft and safe and he can do that. 

The small man seems to relax a little at that, and he can’t help feeling a little smug about it. He forgets that with a startled squawk as the man uses his grip on his elbow to start dragging him to the top of a flight of stairs, where they’re met with another man, small as the first one but with bright white hair.

“Do you know what’s going on?” He asks the newcomer bemusedly, but the only answer he gets is a hand on his other elbow as they both drag him down the stairs and through a dark, rundown looking room, and out into the cold night air.

Dan feels like he’s run into a brick wall, gasping for breath as he looks between Louis and Patty, who are looking back at him with eyes full of fear and worry and just a tiny bit of hope.

“What the fuck just happened?” He gasps, and maybe it’s the lack of the overly polite tone, or maybe he sees the recognition in Dan’s eyes, but something convinces Louis that Dan’s okay, and he bursts into relieved tears as he throws himself at Dan and clings to him.

“Don’t you ever fucking scare me like that again. What the fuck was that?” He sobs into Dan’s shoulder as Dan holds him just as tightly, swaying them both gently as the rest of the crew catch up. Alex hovers worriedly beside them for a moment, until Dan notices him and smiles reassuringly.

“I’m okay, whatever it was, it’s over,” he hums, and Alex knows it’s more for Louis than him, but he lets it calm him anyway.

Josh insists Dan and Patty wait in the van while the rest of the crew grab the gear they’ve left inside, and everyone’s more than happy to agree. Matt quietly suggests that Louis should too, but doesn’t get an answer, it’s obvious to all of them that nothing and no-one would be able to separate the two of them anytime soon. They sit in the side door as they wait for the others, Louis curled up on Dan’s lap still sniffling, and Patty pulled in tight against his side.

“Is this something I need to worry about?” Patty asks after a few minutes, voice small and slightly muffled against Dan’s shoulder, and Dan hesitates for a moment, then sighs.

“Yes and no, there’s been a few times it’s affected me in a bad way like this, but it’s mostly good, mostly they just want to be heard,” he tells him, and at Patty’s prodding, against his better judgement, he launches into carefully edited stories. He doesn’t mind talking about Berkeley Square, Deane Street, or Kilmainham Gaol, those were either cries for help or unintentional; but he feels the need to stay quiet about Cawdor Castle, Plas Teg, and very carefully doesn’t mention almost drowning in what he thinks was lake water at Ross Castle. The overwhelming choke of someone else’s grief didn’t overlap much with the drowning anyway, so it’s not difficult.

He feels bad for omitting those parts, and knows Patty could find out about them any time if he feels like watching their old episodes, but he can’t bring himself to scare him like that. He knows he’s only a few years older than Patty, but he seems so young and innocent and Dan can’t bear to do anything to ruin that. Louis doesn’t call him out on the parts he leaves out, and Patty doesn’t seem to notice any holes in the stories, nodding a little and relaxing into Dan’s side more. 

The rest of the crew take their time loading everything in once they have it out of the building, they can clearly see that the three of them badly need this quiet moment to themselves. They can only drag it out for so long, though, so once everything’s packed away and Max has smoked a few cigarettes, Josh slowly approaches the huddled forms.

“I think we’ll all feel better once we’re away from here, yeah?” He coaxes softly, and Dan nods a little, reluctant to let either of them go yet, so he pushes himself up with just his good leg. It takes a bit of wriggling and squirming, but once Louis and Patty realise what he’s doing and start using their legs to help him, it doesn’t take long before the three of them are settled on the bench seat, still huddled together and clinging.

The others all climb in and huddle around them, except Chris who’s happy to drive just to get them the hell away from there. He still has his arm slung over the back of his seat though, hand firmly gripping Dan’s knee, grateful to whoever guided it there for him. He gets them back to the edge of the city before parking in a quiet side street and climbing over to join them. They happily fold him into the pile, and though they have an almost 700 mile journey ahead of them, and only a few days they can guarantee they’ll have the next location totally to themselves, none of them plan on moving soon. They just need to be near their mediums and make absolutely sure they’re both okay, everything else always comes second.


End file.
